Inhibitions to our mobility can be devastating. In most cases, though, it’s possible to retain most, if not all of our mobility and get back to a place where we can be functional and enjoy the ins and outs of daily life again.
We’re going to explore some ways of improving mobility in this article, giving you some insight into what you can do and how it might help you.
Let’s get started.
Methods of Improving Mobility
Naturally, there are a number of ways that you might have your mobility reduced. As a result, you might be wondering how to improve hip mobility, improve ankle mobility, improve shoulder mobility, or just get general help with mobility.
In most cases, our difficulties lie with issues in the joints, legs, hips, and spine. A lot of these problems come from an injury or from sedentary lifestyles that contribute to the slow decline of our body’s functions.
Each particular issue will require some unique physical training if the problem is significant enough, but there are a few principles that you can carry through in your life to address your mobility.
1. Stretch Often
The first thing to do is to stretch your joints, allowing them to express their full range of motion. When mobility is the goal, be sure to focus on the ankles, knees, and hips.
If you’re stretching these areas on a daily basis, they’ll remain lubricated and loose. Since you’re already having some issues with one of these joints that’s inhibiting your mobility, pay special attention to the joint in question.
It’s important to take these stretches slowly, though, and consult with a doctor or physical therapist if there’s a significant injury in place. While stretching is essential to the proper maintenance of our muscles and joints, we can also do some damage if we’re not careful.
Be sure to do stretches that explore your range of motion without pushing it too far in any direction. A pulled or strained muscle will only reduce your mobility even more.
2. Ease Back Into Movement
Whether you’ve been inhibited by an injury or you’re just finding that it’s a little harder to get around these days, you can start to improve the situation seeing how much you can do.
If what you can manage is to walk once around the house, that’s your starting place. So long as you aren’t worsening the injury that you have, try to make that walk every day instead of sitting back.
Our bodies are improved through regular use and maintenance. Similarly to the way a car that sits in the garage will begin to rust and lose functionality, our bodies start to atrophy and lose strength when we don’t use them.
Alternatively, moving our bodies to the extent that we can is a great way to maintain a level of mobility, limited as it may be. Over time, that exploration of what we can do will allow our bodies to open up a little bit and start doing a little bit more.
Now, there is something to be said about resting. If wake up and feel as though you worked your joints a little too hard, give them a day to recover. Mostly what we’re talking about here is keeping a baseline amount of activity to keep things loose and active as they can be.
3. Improve Diet
Improvements to our diet can aid our body’s ability to retain mobility and increase general health.
Studies have shown that there’s a significant correlation between nutrition and mobility. Those with high-fiber intakes are shown to generally have better mobility, while those with nutrition risks have better chances of poor health and less mobility.
The quality of our diets can have a significant impact on how our bodies develop and function as we age. The same is said for our mental health and well being.
So, if you’re starting to experience some bodily difficulty as you age, you might take a look at your diet and see whether or not it stacks up against what we know to be healthy. Lack of nutrition can lead to conditions like arthritis which can inhibit your range of motion and ability to move.
4. Work with a Physical Therapist
The best way to get results and improve your mobility is to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist to examine your issue and see what can be done to improve it.
A physical therapist can finely-tune your routine using the elements listed above and more to give you a fast-track to recovery. Additionally, having the insight of a trained professional can do a lot more good than getting scattered information from search engines and websites that scratch the surface.
The fact is that there are reasons for any difficulty you might be having in terms of your bodily health and ability to function. Maybe those reasons stem from your diet, an injury, the way your particular body ages, or something else entirely.
As we mentioned before, though, there are usually concrete ways that you can work to improve your mobility and get your situation back on track. There’s no reason that we have to simply accept the loss of mobility as we age because there are plenty of examples of people who have recovered and continued to leave healthy lives.
When we lose mobility, we lose a whole lot more along with it. Outdoor activities, contact with nature, the ability to spend quality time with friends and family outside of the home, and a degree of independence are lost as well.
If you’re having some troubles and you’d like to avoid the long-term consequences of immobility, getting in touch with a physical therapist is likely your best bet!
Need a Little Help With Your Mobility?
Improving mobility requires some effort, understanding of the issue, and maybe some help from a trained physical therapist. We’re here to help you out on that front.
Contact us to set up an appointment, learn more about your condition, and start taking steps toward improved mobility and life.